Xiaomi Mi Max review: The Sultan is here!

If Salman Khan was a phone, he’d be the Xiaomi Mi Max - large, beefed-up and a head-turner

A 6.44-inch screen, a 4850 mAh battery and memory of up to 4GB RAM and 128 GB storage — here’s a device that’s got a slight identity crisis between being a phone and a phablet, but don’t get us wrong, the schizophrenia is good news for us desi lovers of all things big. Recently launched Xiaomi Mi Max is opening up a whole new segment of devices that are heavy on battery, performance and memory, but pleasantly thin and light. After releasing the Redmi Note 3 and the Mi 5, Xiaomi is upping the ante steadily as the year rolls along, but the question is, how much bigger can a phone really get

We’ve been using the Mi Max for a couple of week now and are pretty impressed with the fact that it provides enough battery charge to last for about two days on moderate use, switching between Wi-Fi and GPRS, some gaming and emailing. Xiaomi officially claims that the device can play 14 hours of 1080p video over a Wi-Fi network. This is a pleasant reminder of the yesterdays where your favourite Nokia 3310 would require just alternate day charging.

Yes, the first couple of days were slightly tricky as one needed to get used to the longer and broader body of the device. But later, it was a breeze, since Max is actually quite thin (7.5 mm) and light (203 grams). Powered by a Snapdragon 650 processor, it comes with a 16 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras, with the usual beautification and image clarity features, along with a snug fingerprint recognition button at the back.

The 3GB + 32GB variant of the Mi Max is currently available at mi.com for Rs 14,999, and will be available this week through other online sites. We believe it’s a good buy if you are looking to make a statement with your device. Xiaomi will soon release a Mi Max with a Snapdragon 652 processor with a 4GB + 128 GB combo at Rs 19,999.

Xiaomi MIUI 8 review: This is 2 much! Xiaomi has also launched its new user interface — the MIUI 8, and it literally allows you to split your phone into two halves. There are two interesting functionalities — Dual Apps and Second Space. Dual Apps allows you to have two instances of the same app on the same dual-SIM device, Second Space lets you partition your device, like the C and D drives of a desktop. MIUI 8 comes with frilly functionalities like auto adding of Book My Show movie tickets to your Google Calendar, to other intelligent notification labels. Xiaomi will roll out the final version of MIUI 8 by mid-August and it will be available for models including Mi Max, Mi 5, Mi 4i and Redmi Note 3.